


5 Things That Never Happened to Monkey

by ricochet



Category: Prince of Tennis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-06-06
Updated: 2005-06-06
Packaged: 2017-10-05 20:55:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ricochet/pseuds/ricochet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>5 drabbles about Atobe, Hyoutei, and team sports.</p>
            </blockquote>





	5 Things That Never Happened to Monkey

Motivation

No one knew who owned the stuffed monkey, or how it ended up in the tennis team's locker room. It was 20 centimetres tall with pale grey fur.

When Shishido came in, it was on the floor. He put a dot under its right eye with a pen.

When Oshitari came in, it was on a bench. He moved it to sit on top of Atobe's locker.

Ootori fiercely denied arranging Gakuto's red washcloth about its shoulders like a cape.

No one admitted to the crown.

When it showed up at Nationals, Atobe won his match six games to love.

~

Persistence

When he first saw it, he thought it would be simple to have it dismantled.

Gakuto demanded his washcloth back as soon as he saw it. Someone replaced it with a red velvet doll cape two days later.

Three weeks after its appearance, Sakkaki said it was distracting people during matches and confiscated it.

The next time anyone saw it, Jirou was using it as a pillow.

After he lost to Tezuka at Nationals, he discovered it had gone missing.

It reappeared in his tennis bag the second week of high school.

Atobe kept it in his locker all year.

~

Setback

Being able to beat the older students easily did not mean taking his place in the highschool regular lineup was easy. Atobe did it anyway, of course.

Being without Kabaji for the first time in two years did not mean his back was suddenly left unguarded. Atobe took care of himself and did it with perfect elegance.

Shishido had other words for it.

Being indebted to Oshitari, of all people, for the return of something he supposedly disdained was the first thing to trip him up in years. Atobe handled that just like he did everything: with all possible drama.

~

Victory

As far as Atobe was concerned, Hyotei's National Championship arrived two years behind schedule.

In the finals, Hyotei played Fudomine. There were enough long memories to avoid a repeat of the embarrassment at a city tournament in junior high.

History had to repeat itself somehow, though, and Kabaji matched against Ishida in singles three. Sakkaki took them both to the hospital, leaving instructions not to lose while he was gone.

For the singles one match, Atobe played Tachibana. The bench coach was twenty centimetres tall with grey fur, a red cape, a crown, and a dot under its right eye.

~

Keepsake

The National, Prefectural and District trophies are on display in the trophy cases at the school. The glass in front of them is cleaned dutifully every Saturday.

He did not keep any of his uniform jackets or jerseys. They became too small for him about the same time he outgrew his high school rackets.

His two Olympic medals are in cases on the mantel in his study. They flank an old photograph of boys in white and grey. The maids dust and clean the room twice a week.

The crowned monkey is the only piece of memorabilia not behind glass.

**Author's Note:**

> Dumb-thing:  
> Fudomine doesn't have a highschool division, so technically this fic falls into an AU category. Or you can take it to mean Atobe hasn't bothered to remember any other pupblic school by name and all the Fudomine players went to the same place. ^_^;


End file.
